The pressure of pregnancy
This past weekend, Meredith and I attended a childbirth class at the hospital where Little Elvis will be born. The registered nurse who was teaching the class mentioned that, from her own observations, the labor and delivery department gets more active during stormy weather. She thought that there might be a relationship between drops in atmospheric pressure and the onset of labor.
As soon as I could get on the internet, I searched around for any studies of such a relationship. Sure enough, it has been studied. I found reference to two articles, one from St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston and the other from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. They were published in the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery (now published as The Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health) and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, respectively. The first study indicated, "The overall number of labor onsets increased in the 24 hours following a significant drop in barometric pressure." The second study also showed some relationship between falling barometric pressure and onset of labor, but indicated that the magnitude was not of clinical significance.
My understanding is that little is definitively known about what triggers the onset of labor and I wouldn't hazard any guess as to why a drop in atmospheric pressure would contribute to the triggering process.
That said, when I lived in Fort Smith, Ark., I worked with a woman who had given birth to triplets during a tornado on April 21, 1996, an F2 that killed 4 people and injured 89.
Anyone else with stories of "stormy" pregnancies?
As soon as I could get on the internet, I searched around for any studies of such a relationship. Sure enough, it has been studied. I found reference to two articles, one from St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston and the other from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. They were published in the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery (now published as The Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health) and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, respectively. The first study indicated, "The overall number of labor onsets increased in the 24 hours following a significant drop in barometric pressure." The second study also showed some relationship between falling barometric pressure and onset of labor, but indicated that the magnitude was not of clinical significance.
My understanding is that little is definitively known about what triggers the onset of labor and I wouldn't hazard any guess as to why a drop in atmospheric pressure would contribute to the triggering process.
That said, when I lived in Fort Smith, Ark., I worked with a woman who had given birth to triplets during a tornado on April 21, 1996, an F2 that killed 4 people and injured 89.
Anyone else with stories of "stormy" pregnancies?
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